Johannesburg - A South African woman who kept more than 1,000 pet rats at her home was taken for psychiatric observation yesterday while exterminators gassed the rodents.
Police and city health officials were surprised by the devastation wrought by hundreds of rats, thought to have been taken from a laboratory by Ms Gwynneth Quick (39).
"I have never seen such a sight in my whole career," said police spokeswoman Supt Amanda Hattingh. "The house was full of rats.
"The skirting boards were eaten, the carpets were eaten, there were holes in the furniture and even in the wooden floors. There were more than a thousand of them in the house," Supt Hattingh said.